Why Did the DPP Do So Poorly in 2018 Local Elections?

WHY DID THE DPP do so poorly in 2018 local elections? Many have proposed different theories on this in the past days and it is very likely that the DPP itself will descend into a civil war in the near future, regarding why it failed and what it can do to avoid being defeated in such a landslide again in the future.

The result would that even leave DPP incumbents such as Lin Chia-lung soundly defeated in Taichung by large margin. And Taipei city would nearly fall to KMT control because DPP candidate Pasuya Yao split the vote with incumbent mayor Ko Wen-je.

Now there is talk within the DPP of advancing the politicians who did survive the 2018 bloodbath, such as Cheng Wen-Tsan, who managed to retain control of Taoyuan, Keelung mayor Lin Yu-chang, who also maintained DPP control of Keelung, or even the recently ousted Lin Chia-lung, who is still powerful within the party despite losing his reelection bid.

Cheng Wen-Tsan has found his status unexpectedly elevated because of the fact that he was able to hang onto Taoyuan for the DPP, Taoyuan being long known as pan-Blue territory, but which was unexpectedly captured by the DPP in 2016. So, too, has Lin Yu-chang, because of the fact that Keelung is also traditionally pan-Blue territory. As a result, Lin was named acting chair of the DPP by its Central Standing Committee in the past days. There is similar talk of advancing Lin Chih-chien, the mayor of Hsinchu, for much the same reasons.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

At the same time, one notes that Lin Chia-lung is 54, Cheng Wen-tsan is 51, and Lin Yu-chang is 47. All three are not “young” politicians, they simply are young for the current generation of powerful DPP politicians. The DPP may have rode into power in 2016 with the support of young people and endorsed younger, Third Force parties to try and win the youth vote, but it is rapidly becoming more and more evident that, like the KMT, the DPP faces issues regarding its failures to nurture a younger generation of politician.

Indeed, the DPP mostly failed to incorporate post-Sunflower Movement youth activists into its party, with some exceptions, such as Wild Strawberry activist Jiho Chang in Keelung, or Wu Pei-yi in Taipei. The rest have primarily gone to Third Force parties.

The NPP has now successfully demonstrated that it can stand on its own without DPP endorsement, with many having taken the view that the NPP would be wiped out in 2018 because it did not have the DPP’s endorsement the way that it did in 2016. The NPP’s successes can probably be attributed to the fact that it has those iconoclastic young voices which the DPP currently lacks. The NPP also clearly has the political commitment and vision which the DPP does not have, as observed in its consistent stance on opposition to labor law changes and staunch support of marriage equality.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

The DPP’s crisis, then, may provide the NPP space to grow. If the DPP is smart, it may make way once again for the NPP in 2020, with the interests of not just the DPP, but the pan-Green camp as a whole in mind. After all, another powerful reason as to why the KMT did so well in this set of elections, was because of a political deadlock caused by Taiwan’s two-party system. And the KMT has evidently proven itself to be still a threat that the DPP cannot take lightly. It would be in the interests of the DPP to embrace a wider form of pan-Green solidarity in the face of the KMT, which remains an existential threat to Taiwan.

Brian Hioe was one of the founding editors of New Bloom. He is a freelance writer on social movements and politics, and occasional translator. A New York native and Taiwanese-American, he has an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University and graduated from New York University with majors in History, East Asian Studies, and English Literature. He was Democracy and Human Rights Service Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy from 2017 to 2018.
丘琦欣，創建破土的編輯之一，專於撰寫社會運動和政治的自由作家偶而亦從事翻譯工作。他是出生於紐約的台裔美人。他自哥倫比亞大學畢業，是亞洲語言及文化科系的碩士，同時擁有紐約大學的歷史，東亞研究及英文文學三項學士學位。

About New Bloom

New Bloom is an online magazine covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific, founded in Taiwan in 2014 in wake of the Sunflower Movement. We seek to put local voices in touch with international discourse, beginning with Taiwan.